Wood arrow flight in the rain?

[longbow fanatic 1]

As we know, the best way to check whether your woodies are well tuned to your bow is to paper tune them. We also know that it's not recommended to bare shaft tune wood arrows. With that said, I must admit, I have not paper tuned my shafts. Mainly, I shoot my shafts out to 35 yards and watch the arrows flight to determine how well my arrows are matched to my bow.

Yesterday, I was shooting a 3-D in the rain. I noticed my shafts impacting right, nock left, on several occasions. As the waterproofing coating on my feathers finally gave way to the constant rain, the feathers were pretty soaked. In essence, I was shooting bare shaft arrows when the arrows were kicking nock left.

My question is this: taking the variable of a poor release out of the equation, as well as any other form errors which could cause false weak arrow indications, would the nock left, impact right indicate my arrows are too weak with wood arrows as they do with carbon or aluminum arrows? The physics is the same, is it not?

[Wheels2]

Why not bare shaft woods?

[J. Holden]

Originally posted by Wheels2:
Why not bare shaft woods?

If I understand it correctly you can bare shaft wood arrows.  However when a wood arrow impacts the target less than straight on, and at a steeper than normal than normal angle, there can be stress placed on the shaft and it will break.  It can be done, it's just not recommended.  At least that's how I understand it.

To answer the original question, I think our arrows were weighted down in the back with the added moisture.

Being able to see the water coming off the feathers while they were in flight leads me to believe they were pretty saturated.  That added weight at the back end can stiffen a shaft if I remember right.

Just my thoughts.  Hopefully someone with more knowledge than I will be along to educate us!

-Jeremy    

[Sam McMichael]

I was shooting in the rain once with a friend who bare shafts his wooden arrows. As the feathers flattened, his arrow flight was not affected. My arrows were less well tuned than his, so when I lost the flight assistance of the feathers, my arrows were less accurate.

[Orion]

That would be my assessment, Dennis. Arrows are a bit weak, just a bit out of tune, but the fletching obscures it until there is little fletching to do so.  

Info on the length, spine and point weight of your arrows as well as your draw length, bow weight and amount of centershot would help corroborate the finding.

When I go out in rain I give my feathers a whiff of some spray from Ely, Mn that is good for Mukluks and bad for my lungs.  It holds up for as long as i can stand to be out in the rain.  I have had soaked arrows fly fine.  Quite often a wood arrow that is slightly stiff will get goofy when wet.

[Doug_K]

Originally posted by Wheels2:
Why not bare shaft woods?

You can definitely bare shaft wood shafts.. Just make sure you have an extra dozen spined and in the same weight group to actually use after you break the bare ones.    

**Personal experience talking

So if I get this right, bareshaft woods they fly wacky, you pick spine, you tune, you change point weights, you trim the arrow down from full length incrementally, adjust tuning on the bow, and they still fly wacky.  Then fletch  and retune all over again.  A local here does it like that.  Then he paper tunes, he walk back and forth from about 8 to 12 yards and if he gets no tearing somewhere in there he declares it good.  When he got his "bullet hole" at 10 yards but a tear at 18 yards, he was not sure what to think. I told him that must mean you cannot shoot ad deer at 18 yards?  He had a 56 pound Bear, he said he had a 28" draw, it was a real nice 27" draw, I handed him some 60 pound 27&3/4" bop cedars to try.  He goes,"Perfect! wow, how did you do that?"  I didn't do anything, I just wanted to see how they flew.

[longbow fanatic 1]

Originally posted by Orion:
That would be my assessment, Dennis. Arrows are a bit weak, just a bit out of tune, but the fletching obscures it until there is little fletching to do so.  

Info on the length, spine and point weight of your arrows as well as your draw length, bow weight and amount of centershot would help corroborate the finding.

Here are my particulars:

Bow- A&H 66" 45@28 (Cut 3/16" past center with velcro strike plate)
Draw length- 28.5"
Arrows: 60/65 Doug Fir cut to 30.5 BOP with three 5 1/2" parabolic tipped with 190 field point

BTW: I also have another set of shafts which I was also shooting. I shot them out to 65 yards in the rain on the same day and they flew great. These may be a better match.

**They are 55/60 Doug Fir cut to 30.5" with three 5" parabolic feathers tipped with a 125 grain field tip.**

[Bender]

The thing about possibly breaking a woody while bareshaft tuning is a consideration. But beyond that, it is undeniably superior to paper tuning any type of arrow when using finger release.

When bareshaft tuning woodies consider what you are shooting into and at what you're at.

Plain Styrofoam is good as it is soft enough to absorb a lot of sideways force without stressing out the arrow shaft. Also start close. Lets say that your initial state of tune isn't so good. Being close cuts down on just how badly sideways the arrow can get before sticking in the target and possibly being damaged.

As you improve your state of tune by making small changes you can move farther and farther back.

And yes, having a good state of tune will undeniably assist in warding off the bad effects of matted down fletching.

[longbow fanatic 1]

Interesting, Bender! Thanks to all for your insights.

[Orion]

Interesting, Dennis.  Given the weight you have up front on the 60-65# shafts, they should be pretty close as well, and your results seem to indicate that.  They weren't far off.  But I think the heavy heads soften the dynamic spine just a tad too much.  As you know, I shoot an ACS at times as well.  The shelf being cut 3/16 past center can be a problem sometime.  I build mine out so they're much closer to centershot.  

I can usually shoot 10, 15 even 20# more spine than the weight at my draw length. Long story short, I think those heavy heads on the 60-65# shafts soften the dynamic spine just a little too much. Put a 150 grain head on them, maybe even 175, and my bet is they'll straighten right out.  

BTW, do you have a spine tester? Your two groups of arrows could be as much as 10# in spire apart, or as little as a pound or two. If your 60-65#ers cluster closer to 60#, then it's even more likely the 190 grain heads are too heavy.

[longbow fanatic 1]

As always, Jerry, great insights and tips. Thank you! I have some 160 grain tips I will try on those tips. I wish I had a spine tester, but I don't.